This invention generally relates to the attenuation of light in conjunction with evaporative cooling pads, more particularly to the use of light attenuating evaporative cooling pads used with evaporative coolers.
Evaporative cooling has been a source of inexpensive cooling in the residential and commercial market since the early 1900""s. In general, an evaporative cooling unit includes a housing having a fan and one or more water saturated cooling pads mounted therein. The fan is designed to draw air through the housing and across the water saturated pads. The air is cooled by moisture evaporation as the air passes through the pads. Evaporative coolers are particularly suited for outdoor use, or applications where air conditioning is impractical or cost prohibitive, such as warehouses, aircraft hangars, auto repair shops, and gymnasiums.
However, the benefit of evaporative cooling in farming and particularly in the poultry market was not known until the late 1950""s and early 1960""s. During this period, research efforts developed methods of raising poultry on a large-scale commercial farm environment. Evaporative cooling was found to be a very effective solution to increase the production and population of the flocks.
During the same period, research also discovered that ambient light intensity affected the feed conversion and growth characteristics of poultry. The use of devices to attenuate the light source coming into the containment building were tested with varying results. The tests showed that by decreasing light from natural-ambient levels, it was possible to grow healthier and more mature poultry. The tests indicated that the overall performance of the bird increases with a decrease in the light during development.
The typical evaporative cooling pad does not provide sufficient light attenuation to encourage the increased growth and productivity due to its relatively translucent structure. To date, farmers have had to use light attenuation systems for evaporative rollers that incorporate separate devices called xe2x80x9clight traps.xe2x80x9d Light traps are typically fabricated from extruded or vacuum formed plastic profiles that form a blade having a series of surfaces at angles to each other. Multiple blades are assembled to form a complete light trap having xe2x80x9czigzaggingxe2x80x9d passages. The passage of light through the light traps is reduced by the indirect passages. The light traps can then be installed at the air inlet and/or outlet locations of the evaporative cooler. The light traps add complexity to the design, require extra space for shipping and installation, and add costs to the system. However, until the present invention, users of light attenuation devices have been relegated to the use of light traps for several decades without apparent options.
Therefore, a need exists to provide light attenuation in conjunction with cooling pads independent of light traps.
The present invention comprises an evaporative cooling pad and method of making and using the same. The cooling pad features a low reflective, low light transmissive surface finish incorporated directly into the cooling pad. In one embodiment, this surface finish would be a dark color, gray to black, with a low gloss surface. The coupling of this type of finish and colored sheet with the plurality of angled cross-corrugated flutes featured on the cooling pad serves the function of breaking the light source at various flute angles and attenuating the light value during its passage through the cooling pad.
While such features may represent an incremental step in the progress of cooling pad technology, such features heretofore have not been available. Prior to the invention, those in the art of evaporative coolers were relegated to the inclusion of separate light traps with the attendant costs of manufacturing and assembly of the light traps to an evaporative cooling fan system. The need for light attenuation has been long felt and the technology may have existed to solve the need. However, those with ordinary skill in the art did not appreciate or appropriate the solution offered by the present invention.